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Author: William K. Hartmann
ISBN: 0812580397
Publisher: TOR Science Fiction
Details: 428 pages, 18 cm. February 1999
By 2031, we have established colonies in Earth orbit, on the moon and on Mars. Initially, the people of Earth were keenly interested with the goings-on on Mars, but, once it had been proven that nothing more than microbial life had ever existed there, interest had waned. Now, the focus was on terraforming Mars, to make it habitable for ordinary men and women.
Annie Pohaku, a journalist risking potential career-suicide by getting herself posted to Mars for the news and entertainment nets, has arrived on Mars just as a crisis has struck the close-knit group of scientists and engineers on Mars. The most senior explorer, Dr. Alwyn Stafford, has failed to return from a one-day journey out into the unexplored Martian desert. Search parties have failed to locate him or his "buggy". Stafford had left a cryptic message when he filed his "sortie plan". Carter Jahns, Assistant Director of Environmental Engineering, would be able to locate him. Even Jahns was perplexed by the message, but took on the responsibility to find Stafford before his air would run out in 8 days.
Jahns, his artist friend Philippe Brach, and Pohaku set out to discover the whereabouts of Stafford. Rather than wander blindly around the desert, they try computer-enhanced photos from satellites to try and pick up the telltale dust trails left by Stafford's buggy. The work is long and hard, stretching the resolution of both the picture information and the trio. But, as they get closer to determining just where Stafford is, they find that people are working against their success. Finally, days after Stafford's air would've given out, Jahns has discovered where Stafford's buggy had stopped. But when the searchers reach the buggy, they find no sign of Stafford's body. How could a person, running out of air, lost in a Martian dust storm just disappear?
Score: 81 out of 100. A Martian mystery story that keeps you asking "What is happening and why?" However, I found, at times, that the story would bog down. I kept wanting to skip some passages in order to get the answers to the questions. Definitely an interesting book, but one where I felt somewhat unfulfilled.
STC
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